Real Live Nude Girl a Piece of Stuff by alice (alice ) Chronicles of Sex-Positive Culture by Carol Queen If you've never read any pro-sex feminist theory, or if you've just never read any theory about sex at all and the pro- argument interests you, then Real Live Nude Girl is the book for you. It seems that Carol Queen's aim is to make sex as accessible and easy as possible, for everyone - and for her, part of that is to make what she says as accessible as possible. Unlike many articles on this topic, which are written for a more academic audience, the articles that Queen has collected together Real Live Nude Girl have obviously been written as preparation for public speaking or for magazines and newspapers; her words are intended to be easily understood and enjoyed for what she says rather than the complexity with which she phrases her argument. Real Live Nude Girl is divided up into four sections (Real, Live, Nude and Girl) and the articles included cover a truly diverse range of issues to do with sex, sexuality, bodies and gender. However, each article flows smoothly into the next, often sharing a common thread, even if only a small one. Thus the book comes together as a fascinating, funny and cohesive whole, allowing the reader to feel that Queen is truly interested in, knowledgeable about and accepting of all the things she talks about, rather than merely trying to cover as much ground as she possibly can. Perhaps the reason that Carol Queen has been able to cover the range of topics that she has in Real Live Nude Girl is that much of her writing is highly anecdotal. The work reveals much of a person who has had an amazing life but isn't falling into the trap of taking herself - or anyone else - too seriously. Being familiar with reading pro-sex theory which either completely ignores or rails agressively against the far more known and powerful anti-sex (anti-porn) movement, Carol Queen's article Dirty Pictures, Heavy Breathing, Moral Outrage and the New Absexuality was a delight. By cheekily describing how her realisation that the anti-sex crusaders are really just as delightfully perverted as herself made them much more understandable to her, Queen also made them feel somewhat closer to my heart. Carol Queen's obviously genuine love of (and empathy and sympathy for) men was also a high point of Real Live Nude Girl for me. It is a pleasure to read a work whose intention is genuinely everybody's best interests, not just men's, or just women's; this work is not just for people who practice certain kinds of sexual acts, or identify as having a certain sexuality, it is for everyone who wishes to be and to be sexual (whatever being sexual means to them) without harming anyone else. Created on Thu, 25 Sep 1997 and last modified on Wed, 28 Jan 1998.

LOUDonline - http://www.loud.net.au - Fri, 10 Apr 1998